APA is supporting several initiatives in the area of science education. These include a summer institute for undergraduates. There is money available for small conferences and workshops. APA is holding its first annual science leadership conference. The theme for this year is the public face of psychology.

Increasing the number of quantitative psychologists is a priority since the number is dwindling. Nominations are being sought for members of a task force on this issue. The goal is to try to increase number of students interested in quantitative psychology.

Ferrari. Why are there fewer students in quantitative psychology?

Porac: There is less interest in quantitative in general.

Salzinger: Consistent with this lack of interest in quantitative analysis, there is a movement for a qualitative analysis division of APA.

Report of elections committee and introductions

Robert Sternberg will be the next President-Elect. Barney Beins, Kurt Salzinger, and Thomas Zentall have been elected to the Board of Directors. George Spilich has been elected to serve out the two remaining years of Bob Sternberg’s term as a Board member.

New Appointments.

Byron Nelson will be the new chair of the Program Committee.

Program Committee has added William Ahearn (New England Center for Children) for Applied Behavioral Analysis and Harold Takooshian (Fordham University) for International Psychology These appointments increase the size of the Program Committee from 7 to 9.

Discussion of Executive Officer’s Report

Weiss: Some of the pictures in the printed program were of poor quality. The printer should be told of this and asked to do better next year.

Wade Pickren: If I am given the list of names, I will try to contact the Life members and bring their contact information up to date.

Colwill: We can post the names of members for whom emails produced bounce- backs on EPA website and ask other members to help us get in touch with them.

Weiss: Yes, ask the total membership.

Spilich: When we hire a programmer, we should make sure we own both source code and compiled code.

Hill: We should get a professional looking web page.

Jalbert: Have Lynn [Collins] check out web design choice.

Weiss: Yes, let’s have a sophisticated set of eyes. We should have more dialogue on the website. We should have more dialogue in general.

Discussion of Treasurer’s Report:

Ferrari: We are paying the IRS bill. This was not in the budget.

Stan: That was all penalties?

Glass: Yes.

Weiss: How come the check wasn’t sent in November?

Glass: I didn’t know to send it out immediately.

Ferrari. Check was mailed February 28.

Jalbert: How about affiliated organizations advertising?

Hineline: We can trade ads with other organizations.

Bouton: We need to institutionalize ad-getting process.

Jalbert: Is there any discount for ad and booth?

Glass: No

Ferrari: I propose that we try to get more exhibitors.

Ferrari: There is no compilation report. So we do not know what 04-05 expenses actually are.

Bouton: We did have real numbers for 03-04.

Jalbert: We have nothing from Founder’s group?

Ferrari: That is correct.

Jalbert: We should add a voluntary contribution line to website.

Weiss: Let us communicate why people should check off automatic dues collection box. Let us inform the membership.

Miller: When do people pay?

Ferrari: At various times.

Hineline: Payment is linked to hotel reservations and other things.

Ferrari: We should move money into Vanguard.

Miller: We should keep money at maximum interest rate. We should keep money in Vanguard.

Weiss: How much do we have in bank account? We had $77,000 in bank in February. So we have about $65,000 in account now?

Motion: To leave $20,000 in program. Half to the money market. Half to Ginny Mae.

Passed unanimously.

Ferrari: Treasurer was not paid salary as Treasurer last year.

Weiss: Did any Treasurer ever take salary?

Ferrari: Sam did not take Treasurer salary.

Ferrari: Instead of a salary, I received money to pay an assistant. My student Luciano received $2,500 for work this past year. However, it was a lot of work. I recommend that we increase Treasurer’s assistant stipend from $2,500 to $4000.

Glass: My assistant, Erika Hussey, should receive a raise from $8 to $10 an hour.

Weiss: We will increase Treasurer’s assistant to $4000 and pay Arnold’s assistant $10 an hour. We will revisit this next year.

Motion: Approval of Budget

Passed unanimously.

Discussion of Program Committee Report

Weiss: Our purpose is to have the meeting. So we owe Rachel a huge debt.

Barr: Submissions haven’t changed. Acceptances remain high. International is now formally a part of the program committee. Applied Behavior Analysis is now part of the program committee. We have had to extend program from Thursday night through Sunday morning. All divisions should submit to the same web based system. Deadline went to November 30th. We should move back to October 31st. Deal with submissions in November and then deal with problems in December.

Having the program on-line is very good. A lot of undergraduates like having the program on-line. It should appear early.

Weiss: I am ambivalent about whether students should be members to give papers. We should have the sponsors name to have quality control.

Glass: I like November 30th.

Barr: This really hurts the Program Committee, who can’t handle this late date.

Motion: The deadline for submissions will be October 31.

Passed unanimously.

Weiss: We are now encouraging undergraduate participation.

Hill: If we are evaluating all these proposals equally then we don’t need sponsors.

Jalbert: If you have a 97% acceptance rate then we don’t have a high standard.

Hill: You don’t know when your data will come in. Having a double standard diminishes the meeting.

Motion: Undergraduate submissions must include the name of a sponsoring member.

Passed unanimously.

Discussion of Membership Report:

Ferrari: We should move to one single fee. It streamlines the process and makes things more efficient. Single payment will reduce transaction fees for us and save trouble for members.

Allan: Can we set it up so that people can only pay once?

Glass: Yes.

Colwill: One fee is what other regionals do. MPA is $30 for one year and $15 for graduate students. At the meeting you pay $40 for members.

Allan: Let us talk about past payments. I think that people won’t pay $50.

Ferrari: One fee streamlines the system. MPA did not lose members when they went to one fee.

Colwill: The purpose of EPA is to put on a meeting. If you support that then you should pay your dues even if you don’t attend. The real issue is what is fair.

Weiss: Why is MPA so much less?

Ferrari: They have a 20-year contract with the Palmer House.

Miller: They don’t have a paid EO.

Ferrari: They have some people who get paid.

Weiss: Does MPA have a similar endowment?

Hineline: I would rather charge too little than too much.

Weiss: By reducing cost, we will encourage membership.

Allan: You want people to think that dues are only going up $5.

Sternberg: People might drop because they don’t want to pay for a meeting they don’t come to.

Bouton: Suppose we say that registration is now free.

Sternberg: We may lose too many people. I would rather see a membership fee without registration.

Hill: I am worried about a membership drop.

Jalbert: There are people out there who are still waiting for the paper dues statements.

Weiss: I think that we should do it in the $40 range.

Ferrari: I think $40 might be okay.

Weiss: Bob, how about $40?

Sternberg: I think that we might lose at $40. Either $40 or $45 I can live with.

Weiss: Let us take a straw vote on the amount of a single fee.

Results of straw vote:

$40: 7

$45: 5.

Motion: To have a single fee for members.

Passed unanimously, except for two abstentions.

Jalbert: We would have a much smaller deficit if we set dues at $45.

Allan: I move that walk-ins would be $75 and that pre-registration for members would be $45. Associates would remain at $25.

Motion: Membership dues paid in advance of the meeting are $45 and dues paid at the meeting are $75. Associate dues are $25 both prior to and at the meeting.

Passed unanimously, except for one abstention.

Glass: Do we want to check all the associates’ references?

Miller: Let us not ask for references.

Barr: Let us ask Psi Chi for their expertise.

Colwill: Arnold can send undergraduates to us and we will come back to you next year.

Colwill: Should we have a fellows program? We could have it in research, teaching and/or service. Ten years post PhD and some years in EPA.

Jalbert: Does the Board want us to develop a fellows program?

Colwill: Thus current members who meet fellowship requirements and are fellows of APA and APS would create initial fellows. Should we limit number of fellows who could become members each year?

Sternberg: I never heard of APA having a limit. I think that it is a way to keep people in the organization, keep eminent members, and to get eminent people to come.

Salzinger: I also think that there should be a reward for younger members. Perhaps a reward for papers from young members.

Barr: This is consistent with Science Directorate idea that younger members can meet with distinguished members at meeting.

Hill: It would be nice to have a brochure or card highlighting what we have to offer.

New Business:

Paper, poster, symposia submission requirements

Weiss: Originally, every member had the right to present a paper at the meeting. According to Ludy Benjamin there were complaints about scientific quality of some of the papers presented. In response, the 1961 Board announced that only good papers should be presented.

Weiss: It was wrong to eliminate the long abstract without bringing it to the Board.

It is impossible to review a 75-word abstract. We need to have a real review to help students. I want to encourage students but quality has to be maintained.

Allan: Undergraduates should always have member co-authors.

Weiss: A 500-word abstract would improve quality because that requires considerable effort.

Jalbert: I know instructors who have students submit a lot of undergraduate reports from experimental courses.

Weiss: I propose that we have a 500-word abstract for all reports. I liked having sections for Methods and Results.

Allan: Do we want to do this for everyone?

Weiss: I think that having the structure helps the reviewers.

Miller: The motion (Weiss) is that all unsolicited submissions shall have to write an abstract of up-to 500 words.

Motion: All submissions should include a 500-word abstract.

Passed: 11 yes, 1 no.

Placement services

Weiss: Should we bring the placement service back?

Bouton: Any demand?

Glass: Yes

Hineline: Searches are much earlier in the year.

Bouton: Let us put the job ads on the website.

Allen: We can send ads to all members saying send ads to post for free.

Glass: We have a new potential pool of advertisers. Graduate programs.

Jalbert:: How about graduate school ads on web site?

National Psi Chi had a graduate program information exchange.

Ferrari: That is a great idea.

Jalbert: For the first time it should be free.

Weiss: Maybe we should have departmental members present their graduate programs at EPA. The executive committee will think about how to do this.

Newsletter

Weiss: We can have an EPA quarterly newsletter. How many think this is a good idea? It would be produced by a subcommittee of the Board.

Bouton: It is a lot of work.

Sternberg: But we could be the writers and members would get value.

Allan: Arnold [Glass] doesn’t need more to do.

Sternberg: We might get a newsletter editor. Someone can do it with software and someone who wants to do it. I would volunteer to help Arnold [Glass] find someone to be editor.

Virginia Sexton speaker

Weiss: Who will be the Virginia Sexton speaker?

Salzinger and Fagan: We will find a speaker. She was an International area speaker. Harold [Takooshian] will join since he is International representative.

New members for Program Committee

Weiss: Nominations for developmental slot on the program committee?

Miller and Fagan: Recommend Carolyn Vigorito.

Carolyn Vigorito is unanimously supported by the Board for the developmental position on the program committee.

Weiss: Any suggestions for neuropsychology or behavioral neuroscience?

Bouton: Lou Matzel?

Weiss: I concur. He is a strong behavioral neuroscientist. Board voted to ask Lou to join.

Louis Matzel is unanimously supported by the Board for the new behavioral neuroscience position replacing neuropsychology on the program committee.

CEU credits for attendance

Weiss: How about CEU credits for attendance.

Hill: This has become very popular for several groups. It gives people another reason to attend. You get APA approval, which is good in 49 states.

Salzinger: There is a fee associated with this.

Sternberg: CEU is another way to give value to members.

Takooshian: It is a large commitment and it costs money.

Hill: One way is to charge an extra $10 to $15 per CEU.

Salzinger: We can ask APA’s office of continuing education.

Motion: The executive committee will pursue the awarding of CEU credits for attendance at the meeting.